


One Measly Kiss

by Eipthor



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Rigel Black Series - murkybluematter
Genre: Angst, Gen, Horror, Inspired by The Rigel Black Chronicles, Murder, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:08:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28411440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eipthor/pseuds/Eipthor
Summary: It won't hurt. I promise.Not a new work, just cross posting from ff.net's discussion forum
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26
Collections: Rigel Black Chronicles Appreciation





	One Measly Kiss

Harry was colder than she could ever remember. There was a frost piercing her bones, icier than the stark tundra she had encountered in Zabini's mind first year, sharper than the basilisk's sting as venom purged through her body, deeper than the aching deprivation under Pettigrew's imprisonment.

She was numb. Somehow the chilling emptyness felt soothing, a balm to these last painful weeks, leaving nothing behind but cold, determined purpose.

As a child she had been branded with a justifiable terror of the island. She had been a curious child with access to a rather impressive library, one that had been at least partially tailored to her auror father. Azkaban had been one of many subjects she head delved into, perhaps to deeply for her own state of mind, before locking the knowledge away in the dark recesses of her spinal column, only really to be drawn upon in moments of thoughtless, instinctual fear, pulling herself away as one would a hand from a sudden flame.

As an adult she found to her surprise, dull and insignificant though it was, that the island hardly bothered her. The stone beneath her feet was hard, black and jagged, with several crooked monoliths stabbing toward the sky, serrated and biting, as though all that had been soft or smooth had been pulled away by the sea, leaving only the most monstrous behind. The wind whipped about the stones in screaming cyclones and waves pounded the isle from all directions, soaking the surface, trying to pull it down and drown it, destroying the unnatural mar. Everything she touched cut and stung. The very air she breathed seemed permanently infected by the continuous outcry of insurmountable pain from the magic of centuries of inhabitants.

She was aware of all this, and yet she felt nothing. All but her most crucial and innocuous functions, go, walk, breathe, drag, live, climb, pull, heave, had been locked away, safe in her mind behind layers of reinforced occlumency shields. Thick stone walls kept the horrors of the island from seeping in, and kept her reactions from seeping out and attracting the attention of the guards.

Harry watched it all from outside her body. She was safe in the very center of her mind, as far from the walls as possible in the throne at the top of the pyramid from which Dom usually watched over his domain. Dom was lounging against the throne, casual, but protective, eyes tracing the walls for imperfections. It wouldn't do for them to crack and Harry had no focus for anything but the task ahead.

"We're close enough."

Harry realized with a start that he was right. They were 200 yards out from the megalith of the prison. Close enough to attract the attention of a stray guard, but far enough that they wouldn't distract a swarm from the easy prey in the prison.

She flinched at his hand on her shoulder, but allowed him to take her arm and guide her down to her core. The star seemed to have cooled. Harry had trouble focussing on the warmth of the star rather than the barren emptiness of the vacuum it inhabited. She had trouble focusing on anything at all, but she felt distantly Dom's fingers as he pulled her into her star, then along the well worn path into Voldemort's mind.

It was sickening. Harry's mind was layered. Her center nova with precious shining debris, her memories, orbiting to form a small galaxy. Her potions lab. Her rented rooms. Her throne room. Her pyramid and the desert beyond. It all felt like her, or felt like Dom and her magic protecting her. Her mind was complex and interwoven, but always safe.

She now understood why Dom had forbidden her entrance before now, looking around at the remnants of a broken mind, still scarred by the battles waged here. On the outer edges were the charred remains of what must have been a glade, trees and grasses now black, river polluted with ash, still flowing but more slowly and thickly than water ought, letting off bursts of acrid smoke. A once healthy magical core was now deformed, half warped in the unnatural shift from a core of water to one of plasma. She could feel the insanity roiling off it, twisting her thoughts, trying to taint and destabilize her own mind in its pain.

In the distance was an equally charred half constructed castle. Voldemort had had less than two days to construct defenses before Harry had caught up with them, nowhere near enough time to counter someone as experienced in mental sieges as Dom. It had been a slaughter, brief, cruel, and efficient.

In the center was Dom's own contribution, a cage deep in a pit with Voldemort screaming at the bottom. Harry couldn't hear what he was saying, but his and Dom's scowls made no secret of the unpleasantness.

She leant closer into Dom, letting her magic in him soothe through her and ward off some of the stain of this mindscape. He allowed it for a moment before firming and pulling her up straighter. His eyes were tracking the outer walls and as she followed his gaze she saw something dark and blurred pushing against the membrane of the outer wall.

Dom pulled Harry behind him before making a sideways gesture. A seam split open in the outer lining and black tendrils began to creep inside the walls. At the same time, Riddle's cage began to rise. Voldemort was growing frantic inside, pounding on the walls. When the blackness was close enough for Harry to feel the cold radiating off them, Dom gestured again. Voldemort's cage creaked open.

The bubble of silence had burst, and Harry drowned in the sounds of his screaming, slamming her hands on her ears and clinging closer hind Dom. The tendrils pulled taught, then swarmed the cage, filling it entirely end engulfing the terrified handsome boy. The screams grew muffled, and when the last bit of him disappeared into the mass, the silence returned.

Harry could only stare as the now fattened black mass slowly withdrew from the mindscape, membrane sealing firmly behind it. The dementor's cold had left her numb. She couldn't feel Dom. Not as he shook her. Not as her carried her back to the glade. Not as he swaddled her up in a cocoon of her magic and set her adrift in the water, letting her magic pull her back into her own mind. Not as he pulled her upright back on the shores of Azkaban. He moved so naturally in ~~Cedric~~ ~~Volde~~ Dom's body. Centuries of practice. She didn't feel it as he guided her away, flying over the ocean, drifting unseen into her apartment, tucking her into bed.

But she could hear him, somewhere distantly. In a place to be processed later when her mind wasn't so broken from the tournament and death and dementors and fractured mindscapes and cold.

Harry. Harry. Wake up. Honestly I've never seen you this lazy. Really it's fine. Just a bit of cold. We'll just get you home. And warmed up. Maybe some cocoa. No. And into bed. Maybe with that Leo fellow you like. Don't deny it. Well. You don't huh. I knew it. Hah. Harry. Harry. Harry you're being boring. Honestly. You're lucky you aren't fat. Or maybe that I'm so godly and muscular. I'll drop you. I swear I will. Harry. Harry. Honestly. It's all fine. Really. We'll get you warmed up. And better. And I'll change my face to something less recognizable. And then we'll go after the other half of his soul. Right Harry. Harry. Won't that be fun. Harry. I'm sorry. Harry. Please be okay. It's fine. You're fine. Leo had better know what to do. It's fine. You're fine. It was just one measly kiss. I've seen it happen loads of times. It can't hurt you. He can't hurt you. We had to do it. So it's fine. You're fine. I Promise. Promise. Promise me. You're fine. It was a dream. Yeah. Just a dream. It's fine. You're fine. Harry. Please. It was only just a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Never understood why the soul sucking monsters weren't the solution to the whole Voldemort has too much soul (🎷) problem.


End file.
